Under the Stars
by Astralis
Summary: COMPLETE Katie Bell's accident during Quidditch practice in OotP sets off a chain of events for her and George that affect the rest of their lives. Fluffy...
1. Default Chapter

The practice was nothing less than a disaster. Or rather, Ron was nothing less than a disaster. So far, he'd completely lost his ability to catch a simple Quaffle and had managed to give Katie a nosebleed. He was now drifting aimlessly around the hoops in a manner that was going to give Angelina fair cause to shout very loudly at him.  
  
Just as this entertaining thought crossed George's mind, Angelina blew a shrill and angry blast on her whistle. "Stop - stop - STOP!" she screamed at Ron, who stared back at her looking rather terrified. Fred snickered as Angelina went into a rant about which posts one should cover while Keeping as Ron looked ashamed. George knew his twin was rather enjoying hearing Angelina shouting at someone that wasn't him.  
  
"And Katie," said Angelina, turning on her friend. Blood was trickling down Katie's face and she was attempting to mop it up with her sleeve. "Can't you do something about that nosebleed?"  
  
"It's just getting worse!" Katie told her crossly.  
  
George glanced at Fred, who was already searching through his pockets. He watched his brother pull out a small, purple pill and look at it, then across at Katie. The git had given her the wrong pill.  
  
"Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers..." The watching Slytherins had been kind enough to change from jumbled, shouted insults about Ron's Keeping abilities, the Weasleys' financial situation, Angelina's hair and Katie's nose to a coherent chant that would be clearly heard in Hogsmeade. "Gryffindor are losers!"  
  
They played on, Angelina clearly fuming. The three Chasers played their usual brisk game, the Quaffle zooming from one to another as they soared up the pitch. Alicia put it past Ron into the middle hoop with no problem. George watched Angelina soar after her, then looked round for Katie, who would normally have been right behind her friend. Katie was hovering in mid air on her broom. She seemed to be trying to support herself on her broom with both hands and was as white as a sheet. The front of her robes looked to be covered in blood. "Angelina!" George yelped, his heart pounding. Katie seemed to be seconds off fainting and plummeting 50 fifty to the ground.  
  
Angelina's shrill whistle rang out again as George flew towards Katie with every bit of speed his Cleansweep could produce. He knew Angelina and Fred were on their way towards Katie as well, but he was the closest. Reaching her, he stopped gently, trying not to knock her, and wrapped his arm around her waist. Katie slumped against him, causing him to list to one side.  
  
"She needs the hospital wing," Angelina was saying grimly as George carefully straightened up, maintaining his grip on Katie all the while.  
  
"We'll take her," Fred volunteered guiltily, flying up on Katie's other side and steadying her with a hand. "She - er - might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake - "  
  
Manoeuvering Katie gently between them, the twins set off for the hospital wing in silence. George had his eyes trained on Katie, who was now bleeding into his shoulder. He'd never seen a living human being this white before. A kind of cold nausea had settled in his stomach - Katie would have been fine if Fred hadn't given her that Blood Blisterpod. The nosebleed Ron had caused with the Quaffle would have stopped in minutes and Katie would not now be in this state. None of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were supposed to hurt anyone.  
  
Slowly, gently, awkwardly, they landed. Katie collapsed onto the ground, pulling George with her. "We'll have to carry her," George muttered, half to himself as he extracted his arm and scooped her up, the way he'd carried Ginny when she was small. "Katie? Katie? Katie, say something, please!" She was motionless in his arms, her eyes closed, blood still trickling from her nose.  
  
"Hurry up," said Fred tersely, who had all three brooms over one shoulder.  
  
George had never appreciated just how far it was from the Quidditch pitch to the hospital wing. They had to get Katie to Madam Pomfrey - Madam Pomfrey would make her nose stop bleeding, she'd make Katie wake up and say something, anything, even if it was to curse Fred, George and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes into the next dimension.  
  
Lee Jordan happened to be heading down the stairs as George, Fred and the motionless Katie went up. Seeing them - or more accurately, seeing Katie - Lee stopped and swore. "What happened?" he asked.  
  
"She got a nosebleed - we gave her a Blood Blisterpod accidentally," Fred muttered.  
  
"You gave her the Blood Blisterpod," George snapped as they kept climbing, Lee walking backwards in front of them.  
  
Lee swore again, then grinned. George was so far from smiling that he felt like snapping at Lee as well. "Hell of a way to get the pretty Katie into your arms," he said.  
  
George shifted Katie slightly and glared at his friend. "Would you get out of my way?" he asked as politely as he could manage. Had his mother heard him use that tone of voice he would have been de-gnoming the garden for a year. He reflected for a split second that it was probably a good thing that his wand was in the changing rooms in accordance with Quidditch regulations. Had he had his wand and a spare hand, Lee might now be sporting green skin and pink hair and he'd be facing detention from McGonagall.  
  
Pushing past Lee, he headed up the stairs as fast as he could, leaving Lee and Fred to trail along in his wake.  
  
"George is in a right mood," he heard Lee say.  
  
"It's because it's Katie," Fred replied. "And the Blood Blisterpod - she nearly fell off her broom. She could have been badly hurt..." George noted that his twin sounded more than a little uncomfortable. Right then, he didn't really care. He was nearly there.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey," he yelled, reaching the corridor to the hospital wing and dashing along it. Katie was getting heavy. "Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey!" He pushed his way backwards through the door into the hospital wing and on turning around discovered himself facing not only Pomfrey but McGonagall.  
  
He heard one of them gasp as he pushed past them and laid Katie down on the nearest bed. "Mr Weasley - what happened?" McGonagall was staring at Katie and her blood-covered robes in horror and Pomfrey was already searching through bottles in a cupboard.  
  
"She got a nosebleed in Quidditch practice," George muttered, sinking into the chair beside the bed and taking Katie's hand.  
  
"And? That's not an ordinary nosebleed she's got there, Mr Weasley."  
  
George stared into Katie's face, willing her to be all right, willing her to forgive him...  
  
Fred and Lee had run into the room. Dropping the brooms onto the floor, they dodged Pomfrey to look at Katie.  
  
"She looks bad," Fred whispered.  
  
"What happened, Mr Weasley?" McGonagall repeated.  
  
"Ron hit her in the face with the Quaffle," Fred whispered, saving George the agony of answering. "I gave her - something that I thought would stop the bleeding. It didn't. It just made it worse. Angelina stopped practice just in time and we brought her up here."  
  
Madam Pomfrey was spooning a garish bright blue liquid into Katie's mouth, muttering an incantation to make her swallow. George watched as the bleeding slowed to a stop. Katie barely seemed to breathing. How much blood could a person afford to lose and not die? But Madam Pomfrey could fix anything - she'd regrown the bones in Harry's arm after Lockhart had removed them.  
  
"Will she be all right?" Fred was asking anxiously. George clutched Katie's hand as hard as he dared, waiting for the reply.  
  
"She'll be up and about in a few days. She's very weak at the moment - she'll need a lot of sleep - lots of Blood Replenishing potions - strengthening potions - Professor Snape will be delighted."  
  
George sighed in relief and allowed himself a little smile. Katie would be okay. True, she'd probably hate him forever, but at least she was going to be all right.  
  
***  
  
"George?"  
  
Sleepily, George raised his head. He wasn't good at waking up. He especially wasn't good at waking up when he'd had a very bad few hours sleep in a hospital wing chair. Hospital wing chair... he forced his eyes open. Hospital wing. Right. Katie.  
  
"Katie?" he whispered. A bit of colour had returned to her face and Madam Pomfrey had cleaned the blood up and changed her into her pajamas.  
  
She smiled weakly. "What happened?" She was whispering too. "Quidditch practice..."  
  
"Fred accidentally gave you a Blood Blisterpod. You nearly collapsed... I'm so sorry, Katie."  
  
"Oh." She looked thoughtful. "How'd I get here?"  
  
"I carried you."  
  
"Oh," said Katie again. "What's the time?"  
  
George peered up at the clock on the wall. "About three o'clock in the morning," he told her.  
  
"And Pomfrey let you stay?" Katie had closed her eyes.  
  
"No, she chased me off. But I - I didn't want you to be here by yourself - so - I snuck back up here," he confessed. "I hope you don't mind."  
  
"You're so sweet," Katie murmured. "Go back to sleep... I am..."  
  
George watched her sleep for a few moments before closing his own eyes again. Perhaps he'd sleep a bit better now.  
  
***  
  
The sun woke them the next morning before Madam Pomfrey arrived.  
  
"I'd better go - Madam Pomfrey will kill me," George whispered, standing up and stretching.  
  
Katie grinned - she certainly seemed much stronger. "Since when did you care?"  
  
"She might not let me back up here. Well - you probably don't want me to come anyway - that Blood Blisterpod..." George's voice trailed off. Katie's expression was unreadable - unlike Angelina, whose every emotion was readable to anyone with sight, Katie had long ago perfected a perfectly blank face.  
  
"Don't be silly," she said finally, her grin coming back. "I'm glad you were here."  
  
"Are you?"  
  
"George... you're an idiot. Come here," she said mysteriously. Glancing around to check that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, George knelt down beside the bed and looked at her. "I'm glad you stayed," she whispered.  
  
"Are you?" George whispered again, finding it rather hard to tear his gaze away from her big brown eyes.  
  
Katie nodded, looking up at him. Instinctively, George bent over her and put an arm across her to stroke her cheek on the side away from him. Neither broke their gaze.  
  
"Katie..." He didn't have the words to tell her how much she meant - to tell her how scared he'd been yesterday afternoon - to tell her how much he wanted to sit here with her forever and never ever leave her again.  
  
She reached up and folded her arms around him. George laid his head on the pillow beside hers, still stroking her cheek, and held her as best he could, there in the cold hospital wing. Almost without thinking about it, he let his lips brush her cheek and felt rather than saw her smile, and sigh, and lean her head against his. He still didn't have the words, but he realised she knew, anyway.  
  
Madam Pomfrey found them like that a few minutes later. Neither George nor Katie ever realised that she had smiled to herself and retired to her office for another ten minutes to emerge, 'horrified', and send George down to breakfast with a sharp telling off.  
  
George almost skipped down to breakfast, trying to figure out how something which had gone so wrong yesterday had led to something so completely right today. In fact, everything seemed better today. 


	2. Chapter Two

DISCLAIMER: all the usual stuff - Katie, George and everyone else belong to JK Rowling. I'm just playing with them; I promise I'll let her have them back when she wants them again!  
  
*** As soon as classes were done for the day, Katie headed straight back to Gryffindor tower, threw herself onto her bed, and yanked the hangings shut around her. For the first time all day, she had managed to shut the world out and had a chance to think clearly about the mysterious disappearance of the entire Weasley clan overnight.  
  
All anyone seemed to know was that Harry Potter had had some kind of a nightmare and, on awakening, had insisted that he'd seen George's dad bitten by a giant snake and be badly hurt. Professor McGonagall, who had been fetched by a worried Neville Longbottom, had taken it seriously enough to whisk Harry and Ron off to Dumbledore, despite the fact that it was after midnight, and had then made sudden appearances in the seventh year boys' and fourth year girls' dormitories to wake George, Fred and Ginny. None of them had been seen since and their trunks had been packed by house elves and had disappeared.  
  
Katie lay on her stomach, her face buried in the pillows. George had disappeared. His father was badly hurt. She knew how much George would be hurting - how much he cared about his family. The way he talked about how Percy had hurt them all told her that. Somewhere, whether at the Burrow or St Mungo's or wherever else he was, her boyfriend was in pain and she wasn't there to hold him. All she could do was lie there, think awful thoughts, and hope.  
  
Hearing the door open, she pleaded desperately and silently with the powers that be that whichever of her roommates this was would see fit to leave her alone.  
  
"Katie?"  
  
Obviously not. It was Helen's voice.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Um, Hermione Granger wanted to talk to you - she's here, okay?" Helen sounded a little puzzled.  
  
"Hi, Katie." That was Hermione's voice. Katie listened to the door close before she sat up and opened the hangings.  
  
"Hello." Katie couldn't recall ever having a proper conversation with Hermione before, but as a close friend of Ron Weasley's, she was more interested in talking to Hermione now than she was in talking to most other people. "Sit down."  
  
Hermione sat. "I guess you heard about Ron's dad."  
  
"Is it true then?" Katie felt sick. "Is he really hurt?"  
  
"Yes, but he's going to be all right. Dumbledore told me what happened - well, not really, but he told me - enough. He said I could tell you, but we have to keep it quiet."  
  
"How did you know? About me and George?" Katie and George hadn't taken to snogging in the common room corners like some couples did; she was under the impression they'd been rather more discreet than that.  
  
"Well, I'd sort of wondered if there was anything going on, and then when Dumbledore talked to me he told me to talk to you."  
  
"Oh. Well... what happened?"  
  
"Mr Weasley got bitten by a giant snake, and, somehow, Harry saw it happen. McGonagall didn't want to take any chances, so she took Harry and Ron to Dumbledore and they got it checked out, and it turned out Harry was right. They're all staying with a friend of the family in London. Mr Weasley's in St Mungo's, but he's going to be all right. They didn't find that out until this morning though - it was touch and go for a few hours."  
  
Katie shivered. She didn't like to think of George and the others sitting there for a few hours, just waiting, not knowing if their father would live or die. "Where was he? What was he doing to get bitten?"  
  
Hermione shrugged, staring at her shoes. "I don't know. Dumbledore didn't say. I don't think he wanted me to know."  
  
"Does it have anything to do with all the You-Know-Who stuff?" Katie asked quietly. She knew George's family was involved in something to oppose You- Know-Who. He'd told her that much, but said he couldn't give details because of a Fidelius charm and "you're probably safer not knowing, at the moment."  
  
"I think so, but Dumbledore wasn't very forthcoming with details. Anyway - I'm going there tomorrow - to where they are in London. I can take a letter or something to George for you."  
  
"I want to see him." Why did Hermione get to be special?  
  
"You might be able to. I don't know. I don't know if they'll be allowed out at all - things are kind of tense at the moment. I don't know what George has told you..."  
  
"Not a lot - he said he couldn't, there was a Fidelius charm."  
  
"Yeah... I don't really know what's going on now - I'm not allowed to leave until term's officially over. I'll tell him to owl you or something - if he can."  
  
Katie nodded. It was the best she was going to get. "I'll give you a letter for George tomorrow. And his Christmas present."  
  
Hermione smiled at her, and stood up. "I've got to go and do some work in the library... I'll see you later."  
  
Katie managed a smile too. "Thanks, Hermione." She watched the younger girl leave and then pulled a quill, ink and parchment out of her bag.  
  
Dear George  
  
Hermione has just been up to tell me about your father. There have been rumours floating around all day about why you all disappeared - at least now I know what's happened.  
  
I hope you're all right. Oh, that sounds so stupid, but I can't put it into words. It must have been awful for you, the not knowing. Hermione says your father will be all right - I'm so glad. I was so worried for you. I wish I'd been there with you, not that I would have been much help.  
  
I miss you. Okay, so it's less than 24 hours since the last time I saw you, but it's just so weird around here without you. That and I didn't get my morning kiss...  
  
Should I even be going on about that stuff when your father's in hospital? Oh well. I'm sending this via Hermione, with your Christmas present. It'll have to be an 'I'm sorry about your father/I miss you/have a nice Christmas/I never got to say goodbye' letter.  
  
I hope you do have a nice Christmas - you deserve it, what with Percy and your father and all the rest of it. I'll be thinking of you on Christmas Day - I'll be thinking of you every day, actually, but especially on Christmas.  
  
I didn't get the chance for the soppy goodbye I'd planned - be very glad! I know I'll be seeing you in a few weeks, or even sooner - it'd be nice to meet up in Diagon Alley or something if you can - Hermione was pretty cagey about what would be going on in the holidays. Anyway, I'd been planning to get you by yourself (probably in the highly romantic surroundings of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!). I know we've been together for less than two months, but already it seems weird to think that there was a time when you weren't my boyfriend. I just wanted to tell you how special you are - how much you mean to me.  
  
I'm always thinking about that day we 'got together'. Who would have thought Ron's bad aim with a Quaffle and a Blood Blisterpod could bring a couple together? I'd liked you for ages - you know that - so I was quite glad when you grabbed me just before I fainted. I remember thinking how warm you were, wondering briefly if you were Fred then thinking that you couldn't be because I'd be able to just tell... and then I remember waking up in the hospital wing at 3am to find you asleep in a chair beside my bed. Every moment I've had with you has been special. I know I'm not always fun to be with (especially not at the dreaded 'that-time-of-the-month' - sorry George, I just couldn't resist embarrassing you a bit!) but you've put up with me, right from when I was a silly little first year... and a silly little second year on the Quidditch team... and all the rest of it. Thank you for that.  
  
I'm going to start rambling aimlessly if I keep going much longer! I miss you, I'm so sorry about your father but I'm glad he's going to be all right, I hope I can see you over the holidays but, if we can't meet up, I'll be very glad to see you back at school, and we can go scandalise Myrtle by kissing in her bathroom (I know you like that).  
  
Hermione knows about us... and so does Dumbledore. Is there anything that man doesn't know? Do you reckon all the professors know? Maybe they talk about it in the staffroom at break - but I'd rather not imagine McGonagall, Snape, Vector, Umbridge and all the rest discussing our love life!  
  
Take care  
  
Katie  
  
PS: did I tell you I miss you?  
  
PPS: did you know that I love you?  
  
***  
  
December 24  
  
Merry Christmas, beautiful.  
  
I'm sending this off with Ron's owl tonight, so you should get it Christmas morning, if Pigwidgeon can be trusted.  
  
Hermione gave me your letter when she got here; she's got the present hidden under her bed in the room she's sharing with Ginny. She reckons she promised not to give it to me until Christmas Day.  
  
I tried writing to you a few times, but the letter always just went... wrong. Life's been kind of busy, we go to St Mungo's to see Dad every day, of course, and then we've got lots of stuff to do here. Don't think I'm not thinking about you though, because I am, all the time. I miss you, too. I wish I could've said goodbye before we left Hogwarts but we never got a chance - there was about ten minutes between McGonagall hauling us all out of bed and us getting a Portkey out. It was a really long night - it was awful. The guy we're staying with refused to let us out of the house - we wanted to go to St Mungo's, of course, but he wouldn't let us. He was right, but we didn't really think so at the time. We got a note from Mum that just said 'Dad is still alive' and then didn't know anything else for hours. We were just sitting there, waiting and hoping, sort of sleeping, sort of not sleeping, wishing like anything we were back at Hogwarts, asleep in bed, and none of it had ever happened. Of course, it was wonderful when Mum turned up and said he was going to be all right.  
  
I hope you have a great Christmas. Ours should be interesting - first Christmas away from Hogwarts for years and we're not going to be at the Burrow. Anyway, the whole family will be there, except Dad of course - we'll be going to see him - Charlie, and Percy. Plus the most amazing number of miscellaneous hangers-on who practically count as part of the family. Mum's thrilled at the idea of the amount of food there is to cook and she's co-opted Ginny and Hermione to help because she doesn't trust any of us in the kitchen. We've all been madly decorating and getting into the Christmas spirit, though if I hear 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs' once more I may go mad (don't ask! There are some really odd people in this house).  
  
At the moment, Mum doesn't really want us to leave the house. I'd sneak out, because I do want to see you, but I know she'd freak out and she's had enough to deal with over the last year. I think she's scared something's going to happen to one of us. We may have to make do with letters for the rest of the holidays, sweetheart, but I'll definitely see you back at Hogwarts and we can definitely go and kiss in Myrtle's bathroom. I'll look forward to it. I miss you crazy amounts - some days I could just do with a big 'Katie-hug' and you're not here - or I'm not there, whatever.  
  
Hermione says you and me is 'sweet'. Fred says it's nauseating. The Man-Who- Sings-Christmas-Carols-About-Hippogriffs teases me about being love-sick, but he doesn't know how close he is to the truth - he reckons he's just winding me up.  
  
Please don't give me ideas about the staff discussing our love life. Oh, what a scary idea. They probably do, of course, but let's not go there.  
  
I have to go and decorate some more with Twin-Brother, Little-Brother, Little-Sister, Boy-Who-Lived, Girl-Who-Studies-Too-Much, Man-Who-Sings- Christmas-Carols-About-Hippogriffs, Girl-Who-Transforms-Her-Nose and Overbearing-Mother. Apparently Man-Who-Is-Definitely-A-Crook has brought a Christmas tree around and we are all going to decorate it with live fairies. Girl-Who-Studies-Too-Much will give us all a lecture on the life cycle of the fairy. Girl-Who-Transforms-Her-Nose will knock the tree down, causing Seriously-Evil-Portrait-In-Hall to scream and curse. Man-Who-Sings- Christmas-Carols-About-Hippogriffs will create havoc with Little-Brother, Boy-Who-Lived, Little-Sister, Man-Who-Is-Definitely-A-Crook, and probably Twin-Brother and Self, causing Overbearing-Mother to scream at them (us) and set off Seriously-Evil-Portrait-In-Hall again.  
  
Ah, the delights of being here. I'll tell you all about it when we get back to school.  
  
Write soon, take care, have a great Christmas, I miss you lots  
  
George  
  
PS: did you know that I love you, too? 


	3. Chapter Three

The usual disclaimer - the characters, places and the rest belong to JK Rowling; any lines you recognise come from Order of the Phoenix.  
  
This was going to be a lot of fluffy scenes, but plot bunnies have attacked me and it's actually going to become a coherent story - I hope. The next chapter will jump forward a few years in time.  
  
Thanks to everyone who's reviewed.  
  
***  
  
Moaning Myrtle scowled to herself as she hovered at the top of her favourite cubicle, spying on the couple sitting on the floor of her bathroom. They were always in here; snogging and talking and laughing. She hated that. She'd told them to go away, but the girl had just said, "There's no privacy anywhere else in the school, Myrtle," and the boy had just grinned.  
  
She was called Katie, Myrtle knew. She was a pretty little thing, the sort of girl Myrtle had never been. A Quidditch player, apparently. Gryffindor. How sickening. As much as she liked anyone, Myrtle liked Ravenclaws - after all, she'd been one.  
  
He was a Gryffindor too. George. He was always teasing the girl, calling her Kitty-Kat or sweetheart. Actually, she seemed to quite like being called sweetheart. Myrtle thought it was a horrible name and felt she would have been quite offended had anyone ever called her that. Of course, they hadn't, so she'd never had the chance to find out.  
  
Tonight they were just sitting there, the girl snuggled up to the boy with her head on his shoulder. Myrtle found that rather nauseating, but she couldn't resist spying on them. They looked quite sad, actually. She wasn't inclined to feel sorry for them.  
  
***  
  
George sighed as he thought about the biggest drawback to the incredible plan he and Fred had cooked up for tomorrow. Set up a portable swamp in the third floor corridor to lure Umbridge away from her office and give Harry a chance to get in to talk to Sirius. Allow themselves to get cornered by Umbridge, Summon their brooms, fly into Hogsmeade, then Apparate home. Lee would take care of their trunks. Hopefully, Dad and Bill would take care of Mum.  
  
The biggest drawback was curled up in his arms. Leaving school meant leaving Katie. There had been so many times in the five hours since they'd come up with the plan that George had been tempted to back out, to suggest they do something less extreme that would allow them to remain in school. He couldn't. The only thing that was keeping him here was Katie and he'd been torn between Fred and Katie.  
  
Katie had said, "Go." That had been the worst part; telling her, and her giving him her support. He almost wished she hadn't. She'd miss him; he could see it in her eyes. And he'd miss her. He'd miss the way her eyes caught his and smiled over the breakfast table; her effortless talent at Quidditch; the way she sat bent over her homework in the common room in the evenings while he tried to distract her; her sense of humour; the way she came to him for comfort when Umbridge/Snape/the disaster that was the Gryffindor Quidditch team was getting too much.  
  
"George?" Katie murmured.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You're squishing me."  
  
"Sorry." George loosened his grip on her a little.  
  
"That's okay."  
  
"Katie?"  
  
"Mmmm?"  
  
"I'll miss you."  
  
"I should hope so."  
  
George tucked a stray bit of her wispy blonde hair back behind her ear with his thumb. He felt as if he understood a lot. How Ginny had acted the first time Harry had come to stay - Ron's behaviour around the Yule Ball - the goofy grin on Charlie's face the summer he'd had his first girlfriend - the way Percy had been with Penelope. The git. It all made sense now, like some great, earth-shattering revelation about what it meant to be in love. Was he in love? He had to be. There was no way this feeling could be anything else.  
  
"George?"  
  
"Mmmm?"  
  
"What if the Inquisitorial Squad won't let us send each other letters?"  
  
"Then... I'll miss you even more. You'll have to remember how much I love you, and how much I miss you, and how awful Umbridge is."  
  
"You remember that, too." Katie lifted her head and looked at him. "George... you won't forget me, will you?"  
  
"Katie, I love you. I could never forget you. I'll be thinking about you every day."  
  
"Yes... but we won't see each other for a couple of months. And then I'll have another year at Hogwarts. It's a long time."  
  
George looked into her eyes, remembering the first time he'd done so, after he and Fred had just about killed her with a Blood Blisterpod during Quidditch practice. "It's a very long time," he said, "but I'll wait if you will."  
  
She smiled. "Of course I will. I was just checking."  
  
"Silly girl," George whispered, kissing her on the nose.  
  
Her face crumpled.  
  
"Katie? Sweetheart, I wasn't serious."  
  
"It's - it's not that," she said shakily. "I'm just - going to miss you - so much - oh, George."  
  
"You're breaking my heart, Kitty-Kat. Oh, Katie, sweetheart..." George could feel her trying not to cry as she buried her face against his neck. "You go ahead and cry if you want," he murmured, rocking her like Mum had used to rock Ginny, when they'd been teasing her and made her cry.  
  
Myrtle muttered something incomprehensible from the cubicle where she'd been spying on them and started wailing. George muttered something that Katie would usually not let him say, and heard the splash of Myrtle diving into the toilet to sulk.  
  
George sighed, and tried to will time to slow itself down.  
  
***  
  
Katie slipped one hand into the pocket of her robes and gripped the tiny teddy bear George had given her for Christmas.  
  
She was standing with the teachers, the ghosts, and most of the school around the great Entrance Hall. In the middle of the floor stood George and Fred; Peeves hovering happily above them; Umbridge glaring at them from the stairs.  
  
They'd really gone and done it. They'd really created a swamp in the third floor corridor, and had, just for the fun of it, covered the first students on the scene with Stinksap from some weird plant of Neville Longbottom's. They'd been pursued down here by Umbridge to where a large group of forewarned students had been waiting. Umbridge looked delighted; the Inquisitorial Squad looked smug.  
  
Filch had just arrived on the scene and was waving a piece of parchment, shouting something about having whips waiting. Whips? Katie gripped the teddy bear even tighter and found herself pleading silently with George to get out of there, to get out before Umbridge could hurt him.  
  
"George," Fred was saying, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."  
  
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," George said, his eyes scanning the crowd before coming to rest on Katie. She smiled, the best she could, beaming thoughts out to him. I love you. I'll miss you. Take care of yourself. Get the hell out of here before Filch does bring his whips out.  
  
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"  
  
"Definitely."  
  
"Accio brooms!" they cried together.  
  
Katie couldn't take her eyes off George as the twins' brooms came pelting along the corridor, down the stairs, and skidded to a halt in front of them. She barely heard Fred and George's parting words to the crowd as they mounted their brooms, as the Inquisitorial Squad ran towards them and the twins rose into the air.  
  
"Give her hell from us, Peeves," Fred told the poltergeist solemnly. Peeves saluted, the students applauded, George shot one last look at Katie and the Weasley twins flew out the doors into the sunset, leaving Hogwarts behind them.  
  
No one moved. The Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge and Filch were disappointed and angry; without a word, Umbridge stormed off back to her office. Flitwick was beaming, presumably because of the twins' use of the Summoning Charm, and even McGonagall seemed to be trying to hold in a smile.  
  
The conflicting emotions of pride and a deep emptiness swelled in Katie's stomach. Half of her wanted to celebrate George and Fred's triumph with the other students, to gloat over the failure of Umbridge and Filch, and listen to the others praise her boyfriend. The other half wanted simply to go and hide in her dormitory, or in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, or anywhere private, to mope over what she'd lost.  
  
"Katie?" It was Angelina, and one of Katie's roommates, Charlotte. "C'mon, Katie." Angelina put a sympathetic hand on Katie's shoulder and began to steer her along with the tide of students heading back to Gryffindor tower. None of them talked of anything but the twins, who would definitely be going down in Hogwarts legend.  
  
Katie smiled. My boyfriend, she thought. 


	4. Chapter Four

This is set eight years after OotP. Voldemort has been defeated but the wizarding world is still recovering from a war more dreadful than it has ever known. Hopefully the story of the intervening years will become clear.  
  
***  
  
It was Christmas Eve, and more than a little cold outside. Most people were indoors with friends and family, although one person was sitting on a damp bench in the Cathedral close, wrapped up in a coat and scarf, staring at the Cathedral and the light streaming from its' windows. It looked warm in there, but she preferred to sit out here, listening to the choir and organ from her own little world. She'd gone to Christmas services with her parents when she was a child. They never went to church at any other time of the year, but for her Christmas memories had always been bound up in services at their small parish church.  
  
She'd lived in Winchester for three years now, and had never actually been to a service in the Cathedral. She went into the Cathedral when there weren't services, and wandered about, reading the stone memorials to people long since dead. This fascination with memorials would have been morbid in an ordinary young woman, but Katie Bell had never been ordinary, and she wasn't about to start now.  
  
At the tender age of 11, she'd discovered that she wasn't quite who she thought she was: she was a witch, and magic was real. So she'd gone off to boarding school to learn how to be a witch, and she'd learnt to transform furniture into animals, and brew up a potion to cure a cold, and fly a broom. She'd been on her house Quidditch team for six years, finishing as Captain. On leaving school she'd been caught up in a war. She'd worked with Healers, dealing with people who'd been jinxed, hexed and tortured. She knew what it was to try frantically to save someone, only to fail, and watch them die. She'd been to funerals and memorial services, far too many services for far too many good people, some of whom had been killed before they'd had a chance to live.  
  
She'd returned one evening to the flat she'd been sharing with two friends from Hogwarts to find one of them dead, the ominous Dark Mark hovering above their home, and she'd been the one to greet her other flatmate, and choke out the words, "They got Alicia," and realise what it meant to lose an old friend. Even now, unbidden, the image of Alicia's body would creep into her mind, until she had no choice but to sob into her pillow, remembering Alicia as she had been at school, wondering about the life her friend should have led, knowing that she, Katie, was probably the one the Death Eaters had been after that day. She tried not to think about Alicia, killed for no good reason, with no one she loved at her side, in pain and fear. But somehow it seemed wrong, sometimes, to live when Alicia was dead.  
  
Katie Bell was not an ordinary young woman.  
  
Following the war, following the defeat of Voldemort, she'd taken a position at St Mungo's and had earned the lime green robes of a fully qualified Healer. She loved her work. She knew part of what she was trying to do was make up for Alicia's death - to give others the life Alicia had lost. It didn't work, not in that sense, but it was the only thing that made life fulfilling.  
  
She was 25 now. 25, and single, because love was the other thing she'd lost.  
  
There'd been boyfriends over the years. Hell, she'd dated the famous Harry Potter! True, that had been for a mad, heady three months following Voldemort's downfall, when they'd both been searching for something to replace what they'd lost during the war. They'd broken up amicably; she harboured no romantic feelings for him and never really had done. He was married now, she'd sent a congratulatory card on the wedding. Best wishes for a happy, peaceful future - you both deserve it. Love, Katie. His wife, Ginny, was, well, she was a Weasley.  
  
There'd been another couple of guys since Harry - Roger Davies, whom she'd known at Hogwarts; and a guy from work named Luke - but it hadn't worked out with either of them. She hadn't loved either of them and that was her problem, perhaps - the fact that, despite it all, she still believed in love.  
  
She was still in love with her boyfriend from Hogwarts.  
  
She and George Weasley had promised to love each other forever - but then life got in the way. The war got in the way. George was a year older than her; they'd written letters, her seventh year at school, but it had never quite been the same. Sometime during the war, when they needed each other the most, they'd drifted apart. She'd been scared to touch him, at Alicia's funeral. She wanted him to hold her like he'd done at school and he wanted to sob into his shoulder while he rocked her and rubbed her back, but she was scared. Scared of losing someone else she loved. Somehow, she'd decided that it would be better just to let things slide, rather than love him and then have him die.  
  
Something had gone wrong with that plan - neither of them had died, and she still loved him.  
  
Lost in her thoughts, Katie barely noticed the couple strolling towards her out the dusk. They wouldn't have mattered to her if she had noticed them; she hardly knew anyone in Winchester. So it was that when one of them, tentatively, called her name in a voice from the past that she literally jumped and stared up at the couple in front of her with unseeing eyes for the first few seconds.  
  
Fred and Angelina. George's identical twin brother and the third flatmate from the days during the war.  
  
Perhaps it was because it was Christmas. Perhaps it was because she'd been making herself rather miserable, mulling over everything she'd lost, but Katie was suddenly very glad to see them.  
  
***  
  
After a few minutes of hugging, laughing, crying and confused talking, Katie found herself leading her two old friends through the narrow, twisting side streets to her small flat. She still couldn't quite believe it - Fred and Angelina had been to see Angelina's parents, and were having a look at the town before Apparating home. It was as if they'd just appeared from nowhere - she hadn't seen either for years, except for the odd Christmas/birthday card. Hadn't seen them since their wedding, in fact, and now Angelina's stomach was round and pressing against the front of her coat.  
  
Katie made tea, and brought out a packet of biscuits, and they sat in the living room and tried to think of what to say to each other. Katie was trying desperately not to look at Fred, who was, after all, a carbon copy of the only man she'd ever loved. Angelina seemed to pick up on this, because she drew Katie's attention to her stomach, and Katie, relieved, seized on the topic of the baby her friends were having.  
  
Sooner or later, as was to be expected, the conversation came round to Christmas. On hearing that Katie's Christmas plans involved listening to the WWN with only her cat for company, Fred promptly invited her to the Burrow for the day.  
  
Katie stared at him, blankly. Weasley Christmases were legendary. Molly and Arthur Weasley tended to grab anyone they could and have them round for Christmas.  
  
"Oh, come, please," said Angelina. "We've only just found you again! The more the merrier, Molly always says. Half the wizarding world's coming so one more won't make any difference."  
  
"Okay," said Katie, trying not to think too much about the fact that George would be there. "I'll come."  
  
***  
  
At the Burrow, George Weasley was, rather unhappily, contemplating a Christmas as the only single adult male in the house. The Burrow was packed - Bill was there, with his wife Claire; Charlie and his wife Anna; Fred and Angelina were staying; Ron and Hermione; Harry and Ginny; Neville Longbottom was bringing his wife, Susan; Remus Lupin was coming with his partner, Fran; and then there'd be the children, and Luna Lovegood. George suspected his mother thought he and Luna should get married, probably because they were the only singles in the Weasley circle. The fact that Luna would drive him round the bend didn't seem important.  
  
Staring out at the stars, George sighed, and thought of the beautiful girl he'd never stopped loving, and wondered where Katie was now. 


	5. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: everything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling. It's all hers.  
  
Just to clear things up a bit: this is eight years after OotP. Katie and George haven't seen each other for a few years. Ron and Hermione are married and have a daughter, Amber. Harry and Ginny are married, as are Fred and Angelina, and Angelina's pregnant. Neville Longbottom has married Susan Bones. Bill and Charlie have both married OC's, Claire and Anna. Bill and Claire have two sons, Jonathan and Alex; Charlie and Anna have Phoebe, Matthew and Olivia.  
  
Percy died during the war.  
  
Big thank you's to everyone who's reviewed! You've made me very happy.  
  
***  
  
George was up early the next morning, they all were. The children had been up bright and early and made more than enough noise to wake them all as they tore into their brightly coloured stockings full of small gifts. It was a Burrow rule that opening the big presents had to wait until all the guests arrived, so these presents had to keep the children occupied till then.  
  
Angelina, who'd gotten home late the night before with Fred, was sitting at the kitchen table, Ron's baby Amber in her arms, watching the older children play. George saw her glance at him, stand up, and come over to where he was lurking in the corner.  
  
"Merry Christmas, George."  
  
"Merry Christmas, Angelina. Merry Christmas, cutie," said George, tickling his niece. He often wondered if he'd get the chance to have anything like his nieces and nephews. He'd always wanted a big family, but he'd been single so long he'd often wondered if it would ever happen.  
  
"George," said Angelina, quietly. "I should probably warn you. Fred and I were in Winchester last night and we ran into Katie. She's coming over today."  
  
George felt himself go bright red. Katie. Katie was coming for Christmas. "Oh," he managed to say. "That'll be - uh - nice."  
  
"Yeah. You'll look after her, won't you?" asked Angelina, with a bit of a cheeky grin.  
  
"If she'll let me," said George, looking at Amber to avoid seeing Angelina.  
  
"I wouldn't worry about that." Angelina handed Amber over and wandered off to help Molly with breakfast. George, holding the baby, wondered if this Christmas was going to be one to remember.  
  
***  
  
Katie took one last look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing dark red robes, the most 'Christmassy' she had, and she'd let her blonde hair fall loose around her face. She wanted to look nice for Christmas, and was trying to convince herself that George had nothing to do with it.  
  
Stepping into the fireplace, she grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the bag in her pocket. Taking a deep breath, she dropped it and shouted "The Burrow!" She disappeared in a rush of green flame and the fireplace stood empty.  
  
***  
  
"George? Calm down."  
  
George had been under the impression that he seemed perfectly calm, so having Fred tell him to calm down did not improve his mood. He was torn between wanting to yell at Fred and Angelina for having invited Katie at such short notice, and wanting to hug them for finding her.  
  
"I am calm," he muttered.  
  
"Yeah. Right. Look, she'll be here, and you can talk nicely to her, and sort out the mess you're both in. Right?"  
  
"Yeah," George grumbled, his eyes flicking yet again to the fireplace. This time he was rewarded; there was the usual sound of a person arrived and Katie tumbled out.  
  
Harry gave her a hand up and they hugged, awkwardly. George had been unable to speak to Harry during the months he'd been with Katie - he'd been, for the first time in his life, incredibly jealous. Since Harry had become serious about Ginny and married her, George had forgiven him for the sake of family peace. Also because he really missed Harry's company. And because he couldn't blame him for dating Katie - what George couldn't quite understand was why Harry would've broken up with her.  
  
Katie glanced round the room, and George felt his heart quicken as their eyes met. Katie gave him a brief smile, and consented to let Ginny grab her arm and haul her round the room introducing her to people. Of course, she already knew most of them from the war, so it was more re-introductions. Whatever it was, George was content to watch her, and try to form his thought patterns into some kind of coherent speech.  
  
"And you know George, of course," said Ginny, calmly, "and this is Ron and Hermione's baby that he's holding."  
  
It occurred to George to be amazed that he hadn't actually dropped the baby. Katie was standing right in front of him.  
  
"Hello," he said awkwardly.  
  
"Hi." Katie gestured at the baby. "It's cute. What is it?"  
  
"A baby," said George stupidly. "Oh - a girl. Amber."  
  
Katie giggled. She still had the same laugh, George thought, unable to help laughing with her. "It's good to see you," she said.  
  
"Yeah. You too. Really." George wanted to kick himself. This was the first time he'd seen Katie in years and he had no idea what to say. Furious and bright red, he watched as Ginny dragged her off to introduce her to Remus Lupin's partner, Fran, and their daughter, Grace.  
  
This was going to be a very weird day.  
  
***  
  
Katie could barely keep all the names straight, possibly because only half her mind was on Ginny's introductions and the people she was talking to. It was probably a good thing she'd met a lot of the people who were here before, either during the war or at Hogwarts. There were wives and children, though, and by the time Ginny had finished her introductions the only name Katie knew for certain was that Ron and Hermione's baby was called Amber.  
  
There were people everywhere. Molly Weasley had hugged her so hard she'd thought she wouldn't breathe again. Katie and Molly had often worked side by side during the war, and Katie had come to respect her very much. Ron had shaken her hand, awkwardly, and let Hermione take over talking breathlessly to Katie. She'd been hugged by Bill, which had surprised her very much, and Remus Lupin had been very interested in her work at St Mungo's. It was good to be here, she'd decided firmly, by the time she and Ginny had completed a circuit of the room. The fact that George was in the corner, the usual Weasley red with his eyes watching her every move, only made it that much better.  
  
***  
  
Katie had never known what it was to have Christmas with so many people. Her Christmases as a child had always been nice, but simple. They'd go to the morning service at the village church, then she and her parents would have Christmas lunch with both sets of grandparents and her cousins on her mother's side. Christmas was always sedate and polite; Christmas at the Burrow was chaotic.  
  
They were eating the huge lunch Molly had created, with the "assistance" of half the people present. Angelina had informed Katie that preparations had gone much better when the twins and Ron had been banned from the kitchen.  
  
Molly had been persuaded that there was no possible way the Burrow could hold a table big enough to fit all the people present plus food and had eventually relented enough to let them eat their dinner on their laps in the living room, amid presents and billowing piles of wrapping paper.  
  
Katie found herself eating roast turkey sitting cross-legged on the floor with her plate on the ground in front of her. She was sitting with Neville Longbottom and his wife, Susan, who'd been in Hufflepuff. Neville was a decorated war hero now, like a lot of those in the room. It was a funny thought, that. As a child, she'd been used to the idea that war veterans were old people, like her grandparents. Now she knew 'war veterans' whom she'd been with at school. She had her own Order of Merlin, Second Class, for her work during the war.  
  
Discussing plants and Herbology with Neville, Susan making the occasional interjection about Neville's plants or garden, Katie couldn't help being aware of George across the room, who was sitting with three of the children, Jonathan, Alex, and Phoebe. Katie had lost track of what children belonged to who, but she suspected those were some of Bill and Charlie's. George was good with children, she noted. She also noted that he kept glancing up at her then looking away when their eyes met. Blushing, she suddenly realised she was doing the same thing.  
  
***  
  
Ginny, Angelina and Hermione were sitting in a corner, enjoying each other's company and keeping an eye on the George/Katie interactions. It seemed, as Hermione remarked, grinning, that the relationship they'd had in their school days had more than a chance of being revived.  
  
"And if they don't work that out for themselves, we'll do it for them," said Angelina, firmly.  
  
They giggled as they watched George and Katie meet each other's eyes then look rapidly away.  
  
***  
  
Katie yawned. It was almost 8pm, she noted. It had been a long day, but at the same time, she didn't know when she'd last felt so happy. She'd talked plants with Neville, Quidditch with Harry and Angelina, Healing with Lupin, and cats with purple polka dots with little Phoebe. Katie was still unclear as to where Phoebe had gotten the idea from about these cats; Charlie, passing and happening to overhear part of the conversation, had muttered, "Don't ask. Just humour her," in Katie's ear. Molly Weasley had interrogated her at least six times to ask how she was and if she was taking care of herself. George had rescued her the last time, pointing out that Katie was a fully qualified Healer. Molly had dashed off to rescue a cat from Alex, and George and Katie had done what they seemed to do best, which was blush and look at something else.  
  
"I suppose I'd better go," she told Angelina. Things had calmed down; Lupin and Fran had taken Grace home and the other children had all been put to bed.  
  
"You'll keep in touch, now, won't you?" asked Angelina. "I've missed you, Katie."  
  
"I've missed you, too. All of me. It was stupid of me to think I could get away from you all."  
  
"The long arm of the Weasley family is everywhere," Angelina agreed, giving Katie a hug.  
  
"The very long arm," said Katie, laughing. Farewelling Angelina's unborn baby by patting her friend's stomach, Katie stood up and began to make her goodbyes, amid many promises to keep in touch. She pretended not to notice George slipping into the kitchen, where there was another fireplace, and continued saying goodbye. Finally, anxiously, she stepped into the kitchen.  
  
It was quiet, and empty, compared to the warm, crowded living room. George was the only person in there, leaning against the edge of the bench, his hands in his pockets. Katie shut the door behind her, and they stood in silence for a moment.  
  
"I've missed you," George said finally.  
  
"I've missed you, too." Katie stepped closer to George and looked into his eyes. As he stared back, she could have sworn she was at Hogwarts again, hiding in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with George because it was the only place they could get any privacy.  
  
"Fred and Angelina are having a New Year's Eve party," said George, quietly, breaking his gaze and looking at the floor. "Will you go with me?"  
  
"Yeah," said Katie, blushing, and feeling like a teenager again. "I'd like that."  
  
He smiled. "I'll be at your place about seven on New Year's Eve?"  
  
Katie nodded. "I'll look forward to it."  
  
George grinned, the old grin she knew so well. "I'll see you then, Kitty- Kat."  
  
Katie stepped into the fireplace, still watching him. "George - " She stepped out again, and gave him a hug, reveling in the feeling of being in his arms again.  
  
"Why don't we have lunch?" George murmured. "The Golden Wands? On Tuesday?"  
  
"Sounds good." Katie got back into the fireplace and they looked at each other, rather stupidly. "I'll see you on Tuesday, then."  
  
"Bye, Katie."  
  
"Goodbye." Hands shaking, she pulled some Floo powder from her pocket and dropped it, speaking her address clearly. In the split second it took for the flames to whisk her away she stared at George, whom only yesterday she'd despaired of seeing ever again. 


	6. Chapter Six

DISCLAIMER: This isn't mine; it all belongs to JK Rowling. But you knew that.  
  
Lots and lots of thanks to all my lovely reviewers!  
  
***  
  
The Golden Wands, Diagon Alley. She'd been here once with Roger. That day had been rather a disaster, in fact, that had been the day they'd broken up.  
  
While she didn't really mind breaking up with Roger, not now at least, Katie rather hoped things would go better today. She was meeting George for lunch - the first real time they'd spent together for four or five years. "No pressure, then," she muttered to herself, stepping into the fireplace. "The Leaky Cauldron!"  
  
***  
  
George sat at the table he'd booked, eyes trained on the doorway. He was absurdly worried that Katie wasn't going to show up. He was fairly sure she would - he'd recognised the look in her eyes on Christmas night. It was the same one he had, the one that said a thousand things, beginning with "I'm sorry" and "I miss you".  
  
She'll be here, he told himself.  
  
And then she was.  
  
It was as simple as that; she'd walked in the door and was now coming over. George tried to force himself not to blush. Katie brought back so many memories, so many good memories. She'd been his only serious girlfriend; the only girl he'd ever considered spending his life with. It had gone wrong somehow, but today was their chance to make that right again.  
  
"Hi," she said, hanging her coat over the back of the chair opposite George and sitting down. "How are you?"  
  
"Good... cold out there, isn't it?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, George blushed. The weather. He was talking about the weather.  
  
"Freezing. London in December - what else would it be?" Katie picked up her menu. George contemplated her face as she read the menu, remembering the girl he'd fallen in love with. He'd watched Katie grow up faster than she should have done, during the war. They'd all had to do that. He knew her calm face masked pain; again, a trait common among those who had fought. She was beautiful, to him.  
  
"George?" Katie waved the menu at him. "You know what you're going to order?" The waiter was hovering over her shoulder.  
  
"Uh..." George scanned the menu, quickly. "I'll have the roast chicken, please."  
  
"Make that two," said Katie, passing her menu back to the waiter.  
  
"And a bottle of Honeydew," George added. "You like that?" he asked Katie, belatedly.  
  
"Yeah, that's fine."  
  
The waiter nodded and moved unobtrusively away, leaving them in silence.  
  
"So..." said Katie, toying with her napkin. "How's the joke shop going?"  
  
George sighed inwardly. Here was something he could answer without blushing or making a fool of himself. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, he told her, was going well. They'd expanded; had shops in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Rome and Paris; and they were seriously challenging Zonko's for supremacy in the joke shop market now.  
  
"I'm glad," said Katie. "You guys deserve it... you deserve something good."  
  
The waiter arrived with their bottle of Honeydew. He poured them a glass each and left again. George picked up his glass and took a sip, grateful to have something to do with his hands. "What have you been doing for the last few years, Katie?"  
  
"Not much. I'm a Healer - but you know that. Living a quiet life in Winchester, mostly."  
  
"I've never been there. What's it like?"  
  
"Gorgeous. Got a lovely old Cathedral. The wizarding community's very small, but I don't mind that. I can Apparate or Floo anywhere."  
  
George looked at her. "I've missed you."  
  
"I missed you, too. A lot."  
  
"You knew where I was, Katie. You could've come, any time." George watched her, closely. He didn't want to hurt her, but the silence from her over the years had been painful. He'd been a little angry, at first, especially when she'd first started dating Harry. That had turned into numbness, feeling that perhaps she didn't feel the same away about him as he did about her; trying desperately not to remember the times she'd said she loved him. Everything he'd said or done over the last few years had been coloured by Katie and his thoughts of her. It was a strange way to live.  
  
"I know. I thought about it... so many times. But I was.... scared, I guess." Katie was staring at her napkin, twisting it into a tight bundle.  
  
"Why?" George reached across the table and prised the napkin out of her hands. Her skin was soft and warm, the way he remembered it. He didn't let go of her hands.  
  
"I guess... when Alicia died... somehow I started thinking that... that I couldn't handle it if someone else I loved died. She was one of my best friends... all those years on the Quidditch team... and I got the idea that if I didn't love anyone, I wouldn't lose them." Katie was whispering. George cast a silencing charm over the table and she looked at him, gratefully. "And I missed you. At Alicia's funeral, all I wanted was for you to hold me. But I was too scared that something would happen to you and I wouldn't let myself... let you... well, whatever."  
  
George nodded. He remembered. Alicia's funeral had been an appropriately dark, gloomy day. They'd stood at the grave, him, Katie, Fred, Angelina, Lee, Alicia's parents and sister and a few other family members, as her coffin was lowered into the damp earth in the overcrowded Hogsmeade cemetery. Katie had stood, silent, her eyes following the coffin's slow path into the earth, twisting a pink rose the way she'd twisted that napkin. Standing behind her, watching the coffin over her shoulder, he'd put his arms around her. She'd shaken him off and moved away to stand by herself. "Leave her alone," Angelina had whispered. "She just wants to be alone."  
  
That had been the day things had started changing. Angelina had been right. She'd wanted to be alone. She'd just never stopped wanting to be alone... until now, he hoped.  
  
"I just got into the habit of staying away from people. There was Harry... that was stupid. We were both grieving, trying to find things we didn't want and that we weren't ready for, anyway. I never loved him, not in that way. He didn't love me, either. And then... I was still scared. I thought maybe... I thought you wouldn't want me back."  
  
"I love you, Katie. I've never stopped."  
  
"I love you, too." Katie finally lifted her head. Tears were glinting in her eyes. "I'm so sorry."  
  
"I understand." George stroked her hands with his thumbs. He'd felt like that, a little, after Percy had died. Percy may have been a git, and a prat, and anything else you liked to call him, but they were still brothers. Katie had held him, had let him cry, had stepped back to let him grieve with his family, always ready with open arms when he wanted to sob like a little child instead of being strong for Mum and Dad and Ginny. He'd wanted to do the same for her. "Are you actually hungry?"  
  
She shook her head, biting her bottom lip.  
  
"Let's go, then." George removed the silencing charm from the table and put down enough Galleons to cover the cost of what they'd ordered. As they stood up to leave, he grabbed the bottle of Honeydew. "We've paid for it, haven't we?"  
  
Katie grinned through the tears she was trying to hold back. "You haven't changed, George Weasley."  
  
"How about you show me round Winchester, then?"  
  
***  
  
They went to Katie's first. When George stepped out of her fireplace into the living room he discovered that the tears had finally overwhelmed her. Automatically, instinctively, he reached out for her as he'd done so many times in the past. She kept apologising in between sobs; he wasn't entirely sure what she was sorry for. He just knew it didn't matter, because this was important for her, and because after all they'd only lost four years. They had a lifetime in front of them.  
  
Right now, he was content just to let her cry. They could sort everything else out later. 


	7. Chapter Seven

The usual disclaimer: none of this is mine. It belongs to JK Rowling  
  
***  
  
Katie hadn't been to a New Year's Eve party for a couple of years, and she was rather looking forward to this one. Of course, the fact that she was going with George, who had kissed her tenderly on Tuesday after she'd made a fool of herself by crying all over him, only made it more exciting. The New Year seemed a lot more worth celebrating when life suddenly felt complete again.  
  
Fred and Angelina were holding it at their house in Manchester. George had said not to bother with robes; that no one ever did at Fred and Angelina's parties. Katie had picked out a pink top and jeans, though she had the feeling that George wouldn't care what she wore, and she didn't care what anyone else thought. I guess that's what love does, she thought, remembering the goofy smile she'd worn for days after George had (sort of) hugged her in the hospital wing one day in her sixth year. Ron had given her a nosebleed with the Quaffle... and Fred and George and the Blood Blisterpod... she smiled at the memory.  
  
At seven o'clock exactly, George arrived, wearing jeans and a dark blue shirt. "Ready for a long night?"  
  
"I am. Shall we go?"  
  
Together, they stepped into the fireplace, having to squeeze close together to fit. A rush of green flame, and together they were spinning through the Floo network and tumbling out of Fred and Angelina's fireplace.  
  
The party was already in full swing. Fred and Angelina had gained their partying reputation at Hogwarts and it had simply increased over the years. Popular tunes were pumping out of the wireless in the corner and the kitchen and living room were packed with people. Fred wound his way through the crowd over to them, pushed bottles of Butterbeer into their hands, winked, and wandered off without saying a word.  
  
"He's been drinking already. He'll have stacks of Firewhiskey and everything else you can imagine somewhere. If he's not careful he'll be completely plastered by midnight and Lee'll be throwing up in the back garden. Do you drink?" George asked.  
  
"Not really." Katie was scanning the crowd, searching for people she knew. Harry and Ginny were dancing with Ron and Hermione; Fred was talking a couple of people she vaguely knew from Hogwarts; Sarah Fawcett was there, and David Summerby... the place was crowded.  
  
"Good. Me neither."  
  
Lee Jordan had danced over to them, slightly drunk, and flung his arms around Katie.  
  
"My dear Ka'ie. How lovely t' see you... lookin' as beau'ful as ever, I see."  
  
"Thanks, Lee. Uh, you could probably let go now."  
  
He did, and waved a bottle of Firewhiskey at them. "There's lots an' lots o' this," he informed them incoherently. "Grea' par'y." With this, he moved off, and went to proudly display the Firewhiskey bottle to Sarah Fawcett, who didn't look all that impressed.  
  
"He sounds rather like Hagrid when he's drunk," George mused.  
  
Katie grinned. "He does, rather. I'll have to catch up with him sometime, when he's sober."  
  
The party continued long into the night. Katie, relaxing a little and remembering how to party, danced with George (several times), Fred, Ron, and for old time's sake, Harry.  
  
"This is quite odd," Harry shouted over the music as they danced.  
  
"Very weird."  
  
"I'm glad we're still friends, Katie."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Quidditch game one day? You, me, Gin, Ron, Fred, George, Angelina, Bill, Charlie?"  
  
"Angelina can't play Quidditch, she's pregnant."  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
The conversation ended there; Ginny appeared to inform Harry that Ron was throwing up and would he go and help her make Hermione stop shouting at him.  
  
Having misplaced George in the crowd, Katie went over to where she could see Angelina sitting in the quietest corner of the room and conjured up a chair. "You all right?" she asked. You could usually count on Angelina to be the life of any party.  
  
"Just tired." Angelina patted her stomach. "Part of being pregnant. I'll be going to bed right after midnight."  
  
"Are you excited?" Katie asked her. "About the baby?"  
  
"Sometimes I'm just scared, about having a little person to look after. Especially seeing as Fred Weasley is the father. But mostly I'm excited." Angelina patted her stomach again. "This is our last party, at least until the kids are older. I made Fred promise, so he's gone all out on this one."  
  
"How'll you two cope without parties?"  
  
"We'll go out sometimes. Molly's already volunteered to baby sit whenever we want. She's got all her grandkids tonight." Angelina looked up at Katie. "So, how's everything with George?"  
  
Katie considered. "Good. We've... talked. I can't believe that less than two weeks ago I was thinking maybe I'd never see him again."  
  
"He missed you. We all did." Angelina reached out and squeezed Katie's hand. "Don't go away again, Katie."  
  
"I won't. I've realised... I've realised a lot of things. I was stupid."  
  
"You were. But then, we're all stupid sometimes."  
  
"I was just stupid for longer than most people are."  
  
Both girls laughed. "I've missed you," Katie said honestly.  
  
"Me too."  
  
The song came to an end and there was an odd silence in the room for a minute as people who'd been shouting to make themselves heard suddenly stopped. The voice of the WWN announcer sounded throughout the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, in just over a minute it's going to be another New Year. Grab your significant other and get ready for the countdown."  
  
Angelina poked Katie in the side. Heading towards them were two identical males, one rather tipsy, the other sober. Couples throughout the room were pairing off as the Weasley twins each reached out for their 'significant other'.  
  
"Ten!" shouted the announcer.  
  
"Nine!" The crowd in Fred and Angelina's house joined in, counting down the seconds with the announcer.  
  
"Eight!"  
  
"Seven!"  
  
"Six!" Here Lee Jordan got confused and shouted "three!" Katie barely heard Sarah Fawcett, who had taken his third bottle of Firewhiskey off him, mutter something about drunken louts and give him a kiss.  
  
"Five!" ("Ten!" shouted Lee)  
  
"Four!" ("Sixty one!")  
  
"Three!" ("Five hundred and ninety two!")  
  
"Two!" ("Six!")  
  
"One!" (Lee had dissolved into giggles).  
  
"Happy New Year!" the crowd screamed in unison with the announcer.  
  
As couples around them kissed, Katie savoured the feeling of George's arms around her and the warmth of his breath on her skin as he leaned in and kissed her.  
  
"Katie and George are kissing!" Lee giggled. "Everyone's kissing!"  
  
Sarah whipped out her wand and silenced him. Katie and George ignored him, and kept on kissing. It was much nicer that way. 


	8. Chapter Eight

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of this. JK Rowling invented it all, I'm just playing with it.  
  
***  
  
It was on a clear, early spring day that five people toiled up the slope towards Hogsmeade cemetery under the pale afternoon sun.  
  
Katie hadn't been here since Alicia's funeral, but the others had made this pilgrimage every year. They were going to Alicia's grave, six years to the day after she'd died.  
  
Lee led the way, somber and morose in comparison to the Lee of New Year's Eve. Katie followed him, George just behind her. At the end, slowly and steadily, came Fred supporting a very pregnant Angelina. She'd insisted on coming with them and no one had had the heart to make her stay behind.  
  
Alicia was buried with the others who'd been killed by Death Eaters. Some had been strangers to her five friends; other names were all too familiar. Katie had to force herself not to look for the names that she knew were there, etched onto gravestones. This was Alicia's day. One day, she promised herself, she'd come back up here and visit the other graves  
  
Fresh flowers already adorned Alicia's grave. Her family came in the morning, her friends in the afternoon. As one, Katie and others gathered around her gravestone and stared at it. Anyone, any stranger who didn't know about this part of the cemetery and looked at the gravestone would know that Alicia Jayne Spinnet had only been twenty when she'd died. Perhaps they'd look at the date of her death, and realise that she'd been a victim of the war. Perhaps then they'd read the inscription Always loved. Forever in our hearts and wonder about the people who'd loved and lost the young woman buried beneath the solemn grey stone.  
  
Each of them placed their own offering of flowers, their own tribute, on the grave. Daisies, lilies and roses testified to their love for Alicia.  
  
No one spoke. Lee sat down, cross-legged, staring at the ground. Angelina, teary eyed, leant on Fred for support. Katie just stood, feeling George's presence behind her right shoulder as she gazed at the gravestone, reading over and over again the inscription. Alicia Jayne Spinnet. 15th February 1978 - 21st March, 1998. Always loved. Forever in our hearts.  
  
Always. Forever. Katie found herself contemplating the two words, thinking she'd rather have Alicia, in the flesh, flying towards the goalposts with the Quaffle in one hand, or laughing and joking, eating ice- cream straight from the container, or just real, just alive. Her last image of Alicia was of her body, lying on the floor of the living room, the way she'd died so horribly obvious to any witch or wizard in wartime. Always. Forever. Alicia would always be 14, toasting marshmallows on the common room fire. Or 15, jumping up and down and shouting because Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup. Or 20, tall and slim, confident the war would end soon. It had ended earlier than she'd expected.  
  
"Katie?" This time, as George slipped his arms around her, she didn't push him away. This time she let herself turn around and bury her face against his chest and cry for Alicia like she hadn't been able to six years ago. It didn't matter that she was crying in front of the others, because Angelina was crying too and so was Lee and even George and Fred were teary eyed. That was what it meant to be friends; you could cry for each other and you could grieve together, and Katie knew that that was what love was, too, and that because they'd always love Alicia she'd be forever in their hearts, and that they'd always have each other, now, and she'd been crazy to risk losing it. And Katie knew that she had George and she had friends and she had a family and that made life worth living, even though horribly awful things happened, like to Alicia. And Katie knew that that was why they'd won the war, because even when things got terrible they still had love, and love was always and forever.  
  
***  
  
George stared at his twin, and then at the baby Fred was holding in his arms. "Wow," he said, feeling like he'd felt when Mum and Dad had brought Ginny home from the hospital all those years ago.  
  
"Isn't he beautiful?" Fred beamed.  
  
George thought he looked just like a baby, really, but felt that wouldn't be the best thing to say. "He is," he said, trying to get over the idea of his brother as a father. George was already an uncle, many times over, but it was different when it was Fred's baby, Fred and Angelina's baby.  
  
"Here you go," said Fred, handing the baby over.  
  
George watched in amazement as baby Samuel blinked at him, and then promptly started to cry. "Oops."  
  
Fred grinned. "Give him back to Angelina."  
  
George carried the baby back over to the bed and deposited him into his mother's arms, whereupon Samuel stopped crying again.  
  
"I can't believe you two are really parents," said Katie in a rather awed voice, reaching out a finger to stroke Samuel's cheek.  
  
"Neither can I," said Angelina, rocking the baby. "But he's really here. Our little boy. You want to hold him, Katie?"  
  
"Of course I do!"  
  
"Pass the baby," grinned Fred, as Katie carefully lifted him up.  
  
George watched her with his nephew, a rather strange feeling settling in his stomach. He realised that he rather liked the idea of Katie with babies. He'd often thought of him and Katie getting married and having kids, but that had always been rather unreal and distant, until the moment she had taken Samuel in her arms.  
  
"You two will be godparents, won't you?" Fred asked.  
  
"Of course," George answered for them both.  
  
Angelina smiled. "There's no one else we'd rather have. It had to be you two."  
  
"That's what friends are for."  
  
***  
  
Katie took another bite of her chocolate cake, remembering the first time she'd been to the Golden Wands with George. They'd left before their food had arrived, and she'd then cried all over him.  
  
It was her birthday, this time, and this meal was going rather better than that one. She didn't feel to need to burst into tears, for one things, and for another things were certainly no longer awkward between her and George.  
  
It was November, so they'd been back together for just under a year. That year had been the best Katie had had since she'd left Hogwarts. Her little flat seemed much brighter, and even work seemed more enjoyable. Sometimes she felt like a teenager again, back at school, except for the fact that they didn't have to sneak into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom if they wanted some privacy. Having a ghost wail and cry at you was not conducive to a romantic atmosphere.  
  
George, having finished the ice-cream sundae he'd insisted on having, had stretched out his spoon intent on stealing some of Katie's cake. She knocked it out of the way with her fork, and, as he reached into his pocket for his wand, shoved the rest of the cake into her mouth.  
  
"Wonder if I can still Summon the cake?" George asked, looking at his wand.  
  
"Don't try," Katie mumbled through her very large mouthful.  
  
"What'd you say, darling? I didn't quite catch that."  
  
"Cheeky." Katie threw her napkin at him, earning them a dirty look from the waiter, who sent it back to Katie's side of the table with a wave of his wand.  
  
"I can't take you anywhere, Katie," George said, in a mock-angry voice.  
  
"'Course you can." Katie grinned at him.  
  
"That's good, because we're going somewhere. Do you want any coffee or anything?"  
  
"Not if we're going somewhere exciting. Where are we going?"  
  
"Wait and see."  
  
They paid the bill, then stepped out into Diagon Alley. It was much less crowded at night, golden lanterns throwing light on the cobbled ground and illuminating the way for the witches or wizards who had business there at night.  
  
"We're Apparating," George told Katie, stopping outside the restaurant.  
  
"I don't like Apparating."  
  
"I know, but there's no other to get there. You'll be fine if you hang onto me, OK?" Without waiting for a response, George stepped in closer to Katie and put his arms around her. "Ready?"  
  
"If I have to be." Katie shut her eyes. She couldn't describe what it was she disliked about Apparating, but George was forever Apparating places. She trusted him; he'd never splinched himself yet.  
  
A moment of complete nothingness, then the popping sound made on arrival. Katie opened her eyes and looked around her.  
  
They were standing on the shore of a lake. The moon was glistening on the tiny waves that had been ruffled up by the cold and the water lapped gently at the pebbly shore. Behind them were trees and a slight slope, around them, hills. The wind was cold and Katie pressed closer to George, gratefully.  
  
"So? Where are we?"  
  
"We're in the Lake District," George told her. "This is Coniston Water. We came here a couple of times for holidays when we were younger. That's the Coniston Old Man, up there. There's a lovely view from the fells. One day, I'll bring you back in the daylight so you can really see everything."  
  
"It's pretty." Katie had seen pictures of the Lake District, but she'd never been here. It was nice and peaceful and quiet, and the cold didn't bother her, not really.  
  
"Not as pretty as you," George whispered, resting his head against hers.  
  
Katie smiled, concentrating on the feeling of his chest rising and falling with each breath. "I love you, you know that?"  
  
"I was hoping you'd say that." George let go of her.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Her heart seemed simply to stop for a few beats as George got down on one knee in front of her, silhouetted against the lake and the moon.  
  
"Because I love you, too. I love you stupid, crazy amounts, I always have - and, oh, Katie, will you marry me?"  
  
"Yes," she cried. "Of course. Yes. Definitely. Will you get up off the ground so I can give you a hug?"  
  
"I love you, Katie."  
  
"I love you, too." 


	9. Chapter Nine

DISCLAIMER: All the characters and everything else belong to JK Rowling, not me, I wish they did!  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finally... they're getting married! There'll probably only be one more chapter after this, an epilogue. I'm restraining myself because I could continue this forever, but there are more stories I want to try writing. Big thanks to everyone who's reviewed!  
  
***  
  
"Katie, will you hold still?" cried Ginny in mock-exasperation.  
  
"Can't!" said Katie, pulling out her wand and fiddling with it. Silver sparks shot from the end, causing Susan to leap out of the way.  
  
"Katie, calm down," said Susan, in her best calming voice. "Before you blow us all up."  
  
"I am calm!" This caused more sparks to shoot out of Katie's wand. Susan took it off her and lay it on the table a safe distance away, and Ginny returned to her task of curling Katie's hair and piling it up on the back of her head.  
  
"You know, Katie, you're just like I was when I got married," Ginny mused, pinning another curl in place.  
  
"I can't help it," said Katie, tapping her fingers on her knees as if she was playing the piano. "I just want to go and get married."  
  
"You've got another hour and a bit to go," said Susan, who was doing Angelina's hair. Susan was always very calm. Susan and Neville were the calmest couple Katie knew; she was willing to bet that Susan had been very calm on her wedding day.  
  
"I can't wait an hour and a bit. I can't. I'll explode." Katie didn't think she'd ever felt so nervous and energetic and impatient all at once. It was maddening.  
  
"Well you'd better not, as you're marrying my brother. I don't think we'd ever hear the end of it. Especially not from Mum, because George is the last of us to get married. There! Done!"  
  
"Can I get married now?"  
  
"Not yet. Hold still and I'll do your makeup."  
  
***  
  
George Weasley stared at his reflection in the mirror, and ducked deftly out of the way as his mother bore down on him, intent on straightening his tie again. "Mum, I'm fine. I'm ready."  
  
"You look so handsome, dear."  
  
"Of course he does. He looks exactly like me!" announced Fred, not particularly helpfully.  
  
"We'd better hope Katie marries the right one, then," said Lee, wandering over for a look at the twins.  
  
"You marry my fiancée, I'll kill you."  
  
"I marry your fiancée, Angelina will kill me first. Anyway, Katie can tell us apart."  
  
"Ahhhh... my baby brother's getting married."  
  
"Shut up, Bill. Please."  
  
***  
  
The old Hogsmeade chapel was packed. The whole Weasley clan was there, except those directly involved in the wedding (Molly had finally been torn away from her last unmarried child). Old school friends of the two were there, and a group of Katie's workmates. Up the back sat Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, who looked as though he'd rather be anywhere else, and little Professor Flitwick, who was standing on the pew in order to see the front. Arthur Weasley had insisted that they invite McGonagall and Snape, who had been so involved with the Order of the Phoenix during the war, and Katie had invited Flitwick as well "because he was always my favourite teacher."  
  
The presence of some of his former teachers merely added to George's anxiety. He was expecting a sarcastic comment from Snape any minute, or McGonagall to leap up and tell him off for snogging Katie. He really could do without them. Katie was going to be here any minute now, and he had enough to deal with, what with Fred and Lee being the groomsmen.  
  
The enchanted organ changed its tune and the congregation turned their heads as one to focus on the back of the chapel. Angelina appeared under the stone archway first, wearing a deep red dress that swept the floor as she walked, and then Katie, eyes shining, in a beautiful cream dress, deep red roses pinned amidst the curls that tumbled from the top of her head. Slowly, sedately, the two girls walked down the aisle of the chapel. George watched Katie, who only had eyes for him. She looked beautiful.  
  
The girls reached the front. Angelina joined Fred and Lee, standing off to one side, and Katie took George's hand. He squeezed it, gratefully, his heartbeat slowing down a bit. This was all about them now. In about half an hour they'd be husband and wife.  
  
"The sacred ceremony of marriage has been venerated within and without the wizarding world since ancient times," intoned the old wizard who was taking the service. "It is a solemn vow in which two people are bound to one another for life, as witnessed by family and friends and verified by the Ceremony of the Wands. Today George and Katie take these vows, and become one until death."  
  
Katie glanced at George, and he smiled back. It was really happening. They were really getting married.  
  
"I ask them now, in front of you all, to declare their love and commitment to each other as the first part of today's ceremony. George?"  
  
George felt the eyes of the congregation on him as he shifted slightly to face Katie. He had his notes in his pocket, but he knew he wouldn't need them. "Katie, I've loved you since we were at school, and I've never stopped. I'll always love you, because you're the most important thing in the world to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Tears were pooling in her eyes. George squeezed his hand, murmuring again, "I love you," so only she could hear. She nodded.  
  
"Katie?"  
  
"George, I've also loved you since our schooldays. We were friends and team mates first, and we'll always be that, and we'll always have our love as well. I'm marrying you today because I can't live without you. I promise I'll be there for you, no matter what happens, and I'll love you for the rest of my life." Katie spoke quietly but firmly, her eyes never wavering from George's, two tears trickling lazily down her cheeks, causing her to be extremely grateful for Ginny's enchanted makeup.  
  
"A marriage built on friendship and love is one that will stand the test of time. In the wizarding world, a couple becomes bound together through their wands and the rings that will be forged through their wands and their love. I would ask George and Katie now to raise their wands."  
  
Fred and Angelina passed their wands over. Katie gripped the familiar wood and held it up, the tip pointing towards the tip of George's wand. The venerable old wizard began to chant in Latin and in response, the wand tips glowed. A pillar of light began to grow from each wand; silver from Katie's, red from George's. The pillars met and began to entwine and twist themselves together, growing until they met the tip of the other wand. No one moved as the strands of light began to merge together, slowly turning gold, and two rings began to take shape at the top of the arc of gold. The rings grew more and more solid, and when they were complete, the golden arc faded away, leaving two rings floating in mid air.  
  
"Please take your rings," said the wizard solemnly. Katie took George's ring from the air as he took hers. His was a thick back of gold, intricately carved. The wizard directed Katie to take George's hand and slide the ring onto his finger. It was a perfect fit, of course, wrought as it was for him and him only. In response, he slipped a cool circlet of gold onto her own finger. Two rubies, the same colour as the roses in her hair, stood on either side of a diamond. It was beautiful. It was hers. The rings would link her and George together forever. It was an incredibly sobering yet exhilarating thought. They would be together forever.  
  
"The Ceremony of the Wands has bound George and Katie together in the deepest form of magical bond. They have demonstrated their commitment to each other and fulfilled all the requirements of the marriage ceremony. As such, I can now announce that they are now husband and wife. George, I ask you now to kiss your wife to seal that bond in front of these witnesses."  
  
George felt, as he kissed her, that life was perfect. He was married. He'd be with Katie forever.  
  
Katie, feeling George's arms around her and his lips on hers, knew that she would never be lonely again. Right at that moment, everything was perfect. 


	10. Epilogue

DISCLAIMER: Katie, George, and anyone/anything else you recognise belongs to JK Rowling etc. The zillions of children floating around are mine, for what it's worth, which isn't a lot.  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is it. The epilogue. How exciting. I could keep writing fluff about George and Katie forever, but there comes a point when enough is enough and getting Under the Stars out of the way means I can concentrate on other fics, whatever they may be. The title was supposed to become relevant in the epilogue, but I got attacked by the plot bunnies and changed the epilogue, making the title rather random. I can't change it now, it's Under the Stars to me. Thanks heaps to everyone who reviewed, it's been really great to know people have been enjoying it and that there are other people out there who love George and Katie as much as I do. This takes place about twelve years after George and Katie's wedding. I hope it's clear who the various children belong to; there are a few of them running around here. Oh well.  
  
***  
  
Katie slipped quietly into her daughter's bedroom. Lauren was facing away from her, surveying the overflowing trunk on the floor, but she heard her mother's entrance and turned.  
  
"Just about packed?" Katie asked, picking the list up off Lauren's bed. She didn't need to look at it. She'd packed her own trunk enough times to know what was needed.  
  
"Just about. It won't fit, though." Lauren was Katie's oldest child. Tall and skinny like her Uncle Ron, Lauren had her father's mischievous grin and red hair. If something was happening you could count on Lauren to be right in the middle of it - or causing it in the first place.  
  
"Have you got all the important stuff? Socks, underwear - "  
  
Lauren interrupted her. "Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, Chocolate Frogs, wand, pyjamas, towel, quills, ink, robes, textbooks, cauldron, Fluffy Bear, a selection of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes finest, Bertie Bott's Every Flav - "  
  
"Lauren, did you just happen to mention Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?" Katie put her hands on her hips, pretending to be outraged but not in the least surprised.  
  
"Did you expect Dad to let his oldest child go off to Hogwarts for the first time unarmed and unprepared?" Lauren grinned at her mother.  
  
Katie snorted. "Unarmed? Unprepared? You're a Weasley. No one could possibly be more armed or more prepared and that's without the Wheezes."  
  
"You know Dad."  
  
"I do indeed. By any chance, did Uncle Fred load Susie up with Wheezes as well?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Do I then assume that Daniel and Libby also have a few Wheezes in their trunks?"  
  
"Yep," said Lauren again.  
  
Katie sighed, and then laughed. "Hogwarts will never know what happened. Seven of you there at once. All with Wheezes on hand. I'll be very surprised if Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape aren't waiting to search your trunks when you arrive. Now, let's see if we can get all this in your trunk." Pulling out her wand, Katie muttered a few of the spells Molly Weasley had taught her and Lauren's things sorted themselves, lying neatly in her trunk with enough room to shut the lid.  
  
Lauren grinned. "That was cool."  
  
"You'll have to pack your own trunk when you come home. Though, when I was young, I always had to pack my trunk by hand."  
  
Lauren looked at her mother. "It must have been weird. Suddenly finding out you were a witch and going off to boarding school."  
  
Katie considered this. "It was weird. But at the same time, it seemed like I'd known it all along. It was like something that had been missing all my life had just appeared and made everything seem right."  
  
"Were you scared? When you went to Hogwarts?"  
  
"I was terrified. There were so many people, and all this magic, and I just had no idea. I got used to it pretty quickly, though, and I loved it."  
  
"Playing Quidditch?"  
  
"No Quidditch till second year - so don't get your hopes up, Miss."  
  
"Uncle Harry played in his first year."  
  
"Uncle Harry's a very unique case. I didn't start playing until my second year, but I spent my whole first year going to Quidditch matches and reading about it."  
  
"And then you got on the team and met Dad."  
  
"And then I got on the team and met your father. That's right."  
  
"Mum?" said Lauren, hesitantly.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"What if - what if I'm not in Gryffindor?"  
  
Katie stroked Lauren's hair and gently tugged her ponytail. "It doesn't matter what house you're in. It doesn't matter to me and it doesn't matter to your father. Whatever house you're Sorted into will be the house where you'll be happiest, and that's what your father and I want."  
  
"But all the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor. What if I'm different?"  
  
"Not such a bad thing to be. You'll always have all your cousins, no matter what houses you all end up in."  
  
"I suppose."  
  
George's voice floated up the stairs. "Katie? Lauren? We need to go."  
  
"We're coming, honey!" Katie looked at her daughter. "Don't you worry about your house. Just you worry about being Lauren Weasley. Now you get the cat and we'll go. Locomotor trunk!"  
  
***  
  
Katie blinked a few times as she pushed through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, holding a child by each hand. It felt like stepping back in time to her own schooldays. The train, the crowds of students and parents - except that now, it was the parents she knew, and she was here to see her own daughter off to Hogwarts for the first time.  
  
"Isn't it wonderful?" said Lauren, who had just come through the barrier.  
  
"I wish I was going," said Katie. "You're very lucky. You've got a whole seven years ahead of you."  
  
"When can I go to Hogwarts?" asked Nathan, tugging on his mother's hand.  
  
"Not for about four years, mate," Katie told him. "You get to stay home and help me look after Daddy."  
  
"I don't need looking after," said George, coming through the barrier with Jacob and the trolley. "You can help me look after Mummy," he told Nathan.  
  
Lauren rolled her eyes. "There's Uncle Fred and Aunty Angie," she said. "Let's go. Stop being silly!"  
  
"She reminds me of you," Katie told George as they pushed their way through the crowd to where countless Weasleys and a few miscellaneous Potters had gathered.  
  
"Why?" asked Charlotte.  
  
"Never you mind," said Katie, letting Charlotte's hand go as they met the others.  
  
"Isn't this bizarre?" Ginny's eyes were shining. "I want to get on that train and go, I really do."  
  
"Me too, but Snape would have a fit," said Charlie, kissing his nieces and nephews.  
  
"That'd be fun. All of us, on the train," said Katie, just picturing the sight.  
  
"Talk about embarrassing," said Phoebe, pulling a face at her father.  
  
"You're a prefect now, Phoebe Weasley. Let's see some respect for your elders."  
  
After several minutes of great confusion, it was established that the adults would not be going to Hogwarts on the train; that the new first year Weasleys and Potter had more than enough Dungbombs between them and that Fred and George didn't need to provide any more; that it would be a very bad idea for Nathan to let Lauren's cat out of his basket; that Grace and Michael Lupin and Robbie Longbottom also did not need any more Dungbombs; and that it was more than about time for Phoebe, Grace, Michael, Robbie, Amber, Sam, Lauren, Daniel, Libby and Susie, complete with trunks, cats, owls, rats, toads and potted plants to say goodbye to their parents/aunts/uncles/cousins/brothers/sisters/adopted relatives and prepare to get on the train.  
  
"I can't believe you're really going," said Katie, hugging Lauren tightly. "I'll miss you, sweetheart."  
  
"Mum, you can let go now."  
  
"My turn, Katie." George stepped in to hug Lauren, and pretending not to notice that he was slipping her more Dungbombs Katie turned away to kiss her nearest available nephews and nieces goodbye.  
  
Everything was stowed on the train and the guard was blowing the final whistle. Katie watched Lauren move through the crowd with her cousins and push her way onto the train in the midst of a group of fiery redheads. She wouldn't see her again until Christmas. For some reason, Katie felt that this marked the beginning of the end of their happy family life. Jacob, Nathan and Charlotte would follow Lauren to Hogwarts and she and George would gradually lose touch with each of their children as they became more and more absorbed in Hogwarts and their adult world. Molly and Arthur Weasley had relinquished seven children to Hogwarts and adulthood. How had they done it?  
  
"Kitty-Kat?" Even after twelve years of marriage, George still called her by the old name he'd come up with in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "You all right, sweetheart?"  
  
Katie blinked back a few tears, pretending not to hear Hermione assuring Ginny that it was perfectly normal to be a little upset when one's first child went to Hogwarts for the first time. Ron was telling Harry that Hermione had practically flooded the station with tears. "She's my little girl."  
  
"I'm your little girl too," said Charlotte helpfully. "I'm littler than she is."  
  
Katie felt George slip his arms around her and rest his chin on his head as they watched the train doors slam shut behind the last of the students. "You've still got me," he murmured.  
  
"And us!" said Jacob, gesturing to his brother and sister.  
  
"Can't a guy get a quiet romantic moment with his wife?" George muttered.  
  
"Not on a crowded station platform," laughed Angelina as the train began to pull out of the station. Those left on the platform began waving, calling 'I love you' and 'I'll miss you' as the train gathered speed, searching for last glimpses of their loved ones among the children hanging out the windows. In a minute the train was gone, carrying the children off to what might as well have been another world and leaving their parents to think of days gone by.  
  
"Poor Professor Snape," said Fred cheerfully, sensing that there were a few among their number who needed cheering up. "Can't you just see him reading the list at the Sorting?" He put on his best imitation of Snape's drawling voice. "'Longbottom, Robert. Lupin, Michael. Potter, Elizabeth. Weasley, Daniel. Weasley, Lauren. Weasley, Susannah.' He'll be beside himself."  
  
"The revenge of the Weasleys? Or the revenge of the tormented?" asked Ron, scooping up his youngest child.  
  
"Not in front of the children, you two!" Hermione scolded.  
  
Katie smiled and took Charlotte's hand. Some things would always stay the same and one of those was the extended Weasley family. How right she'd been, on her wedding day, when she'd realised that she'd never be alone again. The greatest thing Hogwarts had given her was her husband and family. Her children already had that family. Hogwarts couldn't change that.  
  
For a second, she stared off into the distance where the train had disappeared, thinking of the war, of Alicia and the others that had been lost. Those days were gone now. Smiling, she followed her family from the platform. 


End file.
